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Commit to organ donation with Facebook app

A Sudbury-based company launched a new Facebook application Monday to help raise awareness about organ donation after high-profile figures, such as Justin Bieber, highlighted the issue through social media.

A Sudbury-based company launched a new Facebook application Monday to help raise awareness about organ donation after high-profile figures, such as Justin Bieber and Tom Brady, recently highlighted the issue through social media.

Pop star Bieber tweeted 20-year-old Hélène Campbell of Ottawa on Jan. 21 to support her Twitter-based organ-donor awareness campaign as she waits for a double-lung transplant in Toronto.

Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback, has for the past month been engaging his fans on Facebook to help find a kidney donor for retired football coach Tom Martinez.

The creators of mysendoff.com are following their efforts by encouraging Facebook users in North America to sign a “social contract” by installing the Giving Means Living Facebook app to tell friends which organs they have committed to donate.

“Ninety per cent of North Americans support organ donation, but only about one-third of them actually go and take any steps,” said Colin Firth (no, not the British actor), president and co-founder of mysendoff.com.

“What we are doing with our app through Facebook is putting it right in front of people and giving them an easy way to at least indicate to their friends and family their wishes.”

Firth said the app has a link to the Canadian Blood Services organ-donor registration system to make it official.